Saturday.

On Saturday, Jeanne and I did something that we've never done since opening PJP almost 15 months ago... WE DIDN'T GO TO WORK.  AT ALL.

Obviously, we've each had a Saturday off here and there...but never both on the same day (unless closed for a holiday).  For the most part, we try to save on payroll by working the Saturdays ourselves, or only calling in the minimum amount of help we need for busy holiday weekends.  Beyond a few Saturdays here and there where one or both of us ducked out a bit before our 1 pm closing time, it has basically been the All-Jeanne-and-Rebecca show on the Team PJP network Saturday lineup.

And I don't mention this "every single Saturday" thing as a means to solicit pity or to justify calling this post, "We Never Get A Break", because isn't working EVERY SINGLE DAY just about the definition of owning a small business...especially in the first year of operation?  It is notoriously difficult to make money in the first few years of entrepreneurship and so choosing to spend extra on payroll on the theory of "we are tired and seriously over pie" gave us both more pause than we could handle.

But this past Saturday found us with excellent employees and a low number of orders.  The weather was forecasted to be sunny and hot.  We had a lot of projects going on at PJP that had seemingly sucked all the mental fortitude from us both.  And so, for at least four or five hours on Friday, we debated letting Mac and team work on Saturday without us.  And don't be jealous, but we can now cross off the emotional combination of "excited guilt" from our bucket lists.

And I'll tell you that on Friday night, it felt AHHHHMAZZING to not set an alarm for a ridiculously early hour.  I binge watched Netflix and ordered pizza for my family so I wouldn't even have to be bothered with cleaning my kitchen after dinner.  I slept a solid ten hours.  But, truth be told, the second my eyelids fluttered open, I could only think...

PJP.

I laid in bed and texted my Inner Circle, lamenting of my guilt and stress over not working.  And then I had coffee and stressed about it to Behind-The-Scenes-Tech-Guru Jason.  More than once, I said, "I should have just gone to work."  I kept one eye on HGTV's Flea Market Flip (I seriously hate that show, btw...especially when the contestants buy something for $3 and sell it for $250 to some unsuspecting hipster in Brooklyn, but I digress...) and one eye on the Square webpage.  I could see the number of transactions occurring at PJP Buttonwood and it calmed my nerves to see that we were steady, but not insanely busy.

And then I got over myself.  PJP went on just fine without either of us and we needed to be reminded that pies still get made, boxed, and sold...even if we don't hover each part of the process.  Does it mean we will stop working Saturdays?  Absolutely not.  Does it mean we got a good reminder for our sense of self in the big PJP picture?  Absolutely so.

(And if you are curious about how Jeanne fared, she broke down before I did...stopping by to check in on Mac and a raisin cream order before buying us both coffee and surprising me at my front door with Caribou.  And then we talked on the phone at least three times after coffee and before the 1 pm closing time.)